Hancy Foundation needs sponsors

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The Hancy Foundation, a philanthropic organization, is on the ground in Lamar and is seeking sponsors for students in Haiti so they can fulfill their dreams and live rewarding lives.

Prowers Medical Center physician, Dr. Jim Smith is leading the effort and heard about it from his friend in Haiti, named Hancy.

“He is a very, very dear friend,” he said.

These prospective students are truly disadvantaged.

“These are the poorest of the poor of the areas that we go to,” he said. “The man who sponsors them has built a club for kids.”

It’s a very poor neighborhood.

“A lot of these kids don’t even have parents,” he said. “They are very hard workers and have managed to get themselves, in a few of these cases, all the way through high school or into high school.”

They’ve been able to get through all the normal grades, he said, up to now.

“They’re good students, they just need money to complete things,” he said.

There are 100 kids in the program and the seven selected are the most motivated.

The students need $350 each per year to meet their expenses.

“We have an Episcopal priest that we work with down there,” he said. “He has agreed to screen them and process them.”

Smith has been doing this work in Haiti for 15 years.

“My 15 years has been doing medical care,” he said. “This is the first request of me to do this type of help.”

The priest has been helping Smith for 15 years.

“Several years ago he made it known to us that he had this project on the side in the poorest neighborhood in town,” he said.

The priest brought his medical team over there and he started doing medical care on homeless kids.

“Now we have a regular association with him to help out his medical kids with our medical care whenever we’re down there,” he said.

He has met some of these kids but not all.

“They so just want the opportunity to improve their lives,” Smith said. “School is the most important thing to them.”

Students are not just trying to improve their lot in life but the lives of their children as well.

“Families put the education of their kids at the highest level,” he said. “All grades have to be paid for.”

He is familiar with the kids he takes care of medically.

“These kids are not without motivation and resources of their own,” he said. “They get whatever part-time jobs they can find to help themselves.”

Each child who is sponsored will pursue their own interests. When they are done with their education they will each contribute to society in Haiti.

Among the interests the students want to pursue are agronomic science, economic administration, faculty of science for economics and another student wants to be an English teacher.

Donations are needed by the start of the next school year.

“As soon as we find sponsors that want to help, we’ll start plugging them in wherever they are in the school year,” he said.

People who are interested in donating should call 719-250-4343.

“With something of this type nature, we would organize some feedback,” Smith said.

Sponsors will probably receive a letter.

There is no minimum donation required, Smith said and he plans on following these students through school.

“We’ll see them all in January,” he said. “Every year we’ll see them.”

This will be something new for these seven.

“When we get this going, we’ll have regular communication with the priest,” he said.

They get a new priest about every two years.

“We’re on about our fifth one,” he said.

The current priest is Father Diegue.

“He is a very capable administrator of our medical clinic down there,” Smith said. “He is a good communicator and we’re able to talk to him via email. He’s one of the best priests we’ve had down there.”